1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for reducing particles from an electrostatic chuck and an equipment for manufacturing a semiconductor.
2. Related Art Statement
In each step of conveying a semiconductor wafer, exposure, film-forming by CVD, sputtering, etc., micro-processing, cleaning, etching, dicing, or the like, an electrostatic chuck is employed for attracting and holding the semiconductor wafer.
Particularly, from the views of using, as an etching gas or a cleaning gas, a halogen-based corrosive gas such as CIF3, an equipment for manufacturing a semiconductor requires a high heat conduction for rapidly heating and cooling a semiconductor wafer with holding it and requires a high shock resistance not to be destroyed due to such a remarkably temperature change. Thus, a material made of dense aluminum nitride, dense alumina, or the like is promised.
On the other hand, inside the semiconductor-manufacturing equipment, the occurrence of particles, which results in defects of the semiconductor, is needed to be prevented. The particles are mainly generated from a backside surface of the semiconductor, a part of which stacks on the semiconductor wafer directly, the other part of which spreads out and stacks on a wall of a chamber. Then, the particles are peeled off of the wall, and thereby results in defects of a semiconductor.
In view of the above problems, JP A 7-245336 discloses a method in which convex-concave portions in an attracting face of an electrostatic chuck made of ceramic material are ground by irradiating a plasma and the fine protuberances of the convex-concave portions are removed, and thereby the occurrence of particles is reduced. The method is based on the finding of the cause of particles' occurrence that a silicon wafer having relatively low hardness is ground by the convex-concave portions when the silicon wafer contacts the convex-concave portions.
Moreover, JP A 8-55900 discloses a method in which a contacting shock of a silicon wafer with an electrostatic chuck is reduced by slowly rising a voltage to the electrostatic chuck when the silicon wafer is stuck to the electrostatic chuck, and thereby the particles' occurrence due to the convex-concave portions of the attracting face in the electrostatic chuck is decreased.
In a film-forming process such as a CVD or a sputtering, it is required to epitaxially grow a semiconductor film on a wafer, and thus, the wafer is required to be heated to a higher temperature range of not less than 100° C., particularly not less than 200° C. In that time, an attracting face of an electrostatic chuck is heated by a heater built-in the electrostatic chuck or a heater provided so as to be contacted with the electrostatic chuck in the lower side thereof.
In the electrostatic chuck, the wafer has a lower temperature when the wafer is stuck onto the attracting face of the electrostatic chuck, and the wafer has increasing temperature toward a saturated temperature with time past after attracting. The inventors found that, in such an electrostatic chuck or a semiconductor-manufacturing equipment, even though the contacting shock of the wafer with the electrostatic chuck just after attracting is relaxed and reduced, more particles than expectation occurs. It is difficult to reduce such particles as occurs with temperature rise of the wafer by a conventional method.